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Lab Assistant Emeline Frix, left, and IUPUI professor and the Director of the Center for Urban Health, Gabe Filippelli, right, are shown here in their lab on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. The duo are part of 'The Healthy Cities Project', which is a collaborative effort to combat soil lead contamination in Indianapolis, between IUPUI, Kheprw Institute, Groundwork Indy, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, and citizen scientists throughout the city.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Sandorf Park, a small park on the east side of Indianapolis, 2020 Dawson St., has been closed after city officials discovered landfill waste shallowly buried under the area where kids have been playing for decades, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019.
Amy Bartner and Stephen Beard/IndyStar

Lab Assistant Emeline Frix holds a soil sample which will be tested for heavy metals as part of the 'The Healthy Cities Project', in the Center for Urban Health lab on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. The Healthy Cities Project, is a collaborative effort to combat soil lead contamination in Indianapolis, between IUPUI, Kheprw Institute, Groundwork Indy, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, and citizen scientists throughout the city.
Amy Bartner and Stephen Beard/IndyStar

Lab Assistant Emeline Frix demonstrates how a soil sample would be processed for heavy metal testing for 'The Healthy Cities Project,' in the Center for Urban Health lab on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. The Healthy Cities Project, is a collaborative effort to combat soil lead contamination in Indianapolis, between IUPUI, Kheprw Institute, Groundwork Indy, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, and citizen scientists throughout the city. Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Sandorf Park, a small park on the east side of Indianapolis, 2020 Dawson St., has been closed after city officials discovered landfill waste shallowly buried under the area where kids have been playing for decades, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019.
Amy Bartner and Stephen Beard/IndyStar

Dust samples which will be tested for heavy metals as part of the 'The Healthy Cities Project', are organized at the Center for Urban Health lab on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. The Healthy Cities Project, is a collaborative effort to combat soil lead contamination in Indianapolis, between IUPUI, Kheprw Institute, Groundwork Indy, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, and citizen scientists throughout the city.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Sandorf Park, a small park on the east side of Indianapolis, 2020 Dawson St., has been closed after city officials discovered landfill waste shallowly buried under the area where kids have been playing for decades, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019.
Amy Bartner and Stephen Beard/IndyStar

Lab Assistant Emeline Frix holds a soil sample which will be tested for heavy metals as part of the 'The Healthy Cities Project', in the Center for Urban Health lab on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. The Healthy Cities Project, is a collaborative effort to combat soil lead contamination in Indianapolis, between IUPUI, Kheprw Institute, Groundwork Indy, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, and citizen scientists throughout the city.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar

Sandorf Park, a small park on the east side of Indianapolis, 2020 Dawson St., has been closed after city officials discovered landfill waste shallowly buried under the area where kids have been playing for decades, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019.
Amy Bartner and Stephen Beard/IndyStar

Lab Assistant Emeline Frix holds a dust sample which will be tested for heavy metals as part of the 'The Healthy Cities Project', in the Center for Urban Health lab on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019. The Healthy Cities Project, is a collaborative effort to combat soil lead contamination in Indianapolis, between IUPUI, Kheprw Institute, Groundwork Indy, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, and citizen scientists throughout the city.
Amy Bartner and Stephen Beard/IndyStar

Sandorf Park, a small park on the east side of Indianapolis, 2020 Dawson St., has been closed after city officials discovered landfill waste shallowly buried under the area where kids have been playing for decades, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019.
Amy Bartner and Stephen Beard/IndyStar

The park, located right next to Frederick Douglass IPS School 19 on the east side of Indianapolis, would be made over in time for the National Recreation and Park Association's annual conference, which was held in Indianapolis in September. Attendees would be invited to visit the park and test out the renovations — including almost $2 million-worth of equipment and services donated to the city for the occasion.

All of that came to a crashing halt last April. As soon as they broke ground, they uncovered not soil, but foundry sand and slag. Testing would confirm that the park has been sitting on top of an industrial landfill for more 60 years. And now the city expects to pay $3 million to cap the site.

Scientists and one pediatrician say that the city is underestimating the potential dangers that were exposed to the IPS students and neighborhood children.

No one knows who put the material there. Historical maps from 1927 and 1941 list a LeHigh Portland Cement Company. Filling appears to have taken place between 1937 and the 1950s. But what is certain is what’s in the soil – a mix of toxic foundry sand laced with high levels of lead and arsenic.

City officials have stressed that children from the neighborhood and the nearby school would only be in danger if they “ate handfuls of dirt” – an attitude that raised concerns with experts who spoke to IndyStar.

“You don’t have to eat handfuls of dirt,” said Gabe Filippelli, director of the Center for Urban Health at IUPUI and an expert in lead soil contamination. “It only takes a couple grams in a year of lead saturated soils" to raise a child's blood lead levels.

“I think this really gets at the crux at respecting science,” said Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician whose work helped expose the Flint water crisis.

Dust travels

City officials have said that the fenced-off park is safe. But Filippelli doesn’t necessarily agree. On drier days, dust from the park could easily be picked up by the wind and students being exposed to lead contaminated dust.

"Contaminated sites can easily have materials be blown or washed onto adjacent sites," he said.

Both arsenic and lead are naturally present in soil, but at higher levels, they can present a risk to public health.

In small doses, arsenic can cause irritation in the digestive system, darkened skin and sores or warts. Large doses can be lethal.

As for lead, young children are most vulnerable to the health effects of this potent neurotoxin. Lead exposure, even at low levels, can cause such issues as cognitive deficiencies, behavioral problems, loss of coordination and motor control, and decreased IQ. Physical effects include kidney damage and decreased bone density.

After the contamination was discovered last April, the Department of Public Works coordinated with the county health department to reach out to nearby property owners to test their properties.

The first thing that the city did after contacting IDEM was to cover the areas where equipment had been removed and soil was exposed, according to Dan Parker, director of DPW. The city brought in “several dump trucks worth of mulch” to cover those areas.

"They (IDEM) were comfortable with the rest of it as long as it was contained," Parker said. "We were told that there was not a risk, (by) the health department."

The city also conducted testing at IPS #19 to make sure the contamination didn’t extend to that property, and that there was no vapor intrusion at the school. All of those tests came back negative. The city also distributed information to residents about lead blood testing.

Filippelli said that more surface testing may be needed at the park to fully understand what were the risks of exposure to the students and neighborhood children.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management did not require surface soil testing at Sandorf Park, because there is “not enough soil cover to qualify as cover,” said Barry Sneed, public information officer for IDEM.

An environmental assessment performed by the firm Keramida Environmental shows black sand, slag and debris fill at the surface. Tests performed on the material showed lead levels — in some places — at more than triple residential screening levels established by IDEM and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Without surface testing, Filippelli said, there is no way to know what levels the children at IPS #19 were exposed to.

“Just because a park is closed off doesn’t mean it’s safe from having dust come off the site,” he said. “Are (city officials) addressing the history of exposure of kids who did use that park in the past? It sounds like they’re not. They’re saying they’re safe now.”

More sources

In Indianapolis, Sandorf Park is likely the tip of the iceberg of the city's lead in soil problems.

For decades, lead paint has been the focus of remediation efforts, and for good reason — lead in paint chips is extremely concentrated. But in recent decades, research has suggested the lead dust from soil is also a significant source.

“Decades of resource results clearly show that lead paint is serious," Filippelli said. "but much more widespread is lead exposure from dust from soil.”

Research conducted by Filippelli and his colleagues showed that, controlling for other factors, the blood lead levels in children corresponded to dry conditions when dust is more likely to be dry and airborne. The levels, studied in several cities, rose in the summer and dropped in the winter.

"The story of Flint is this incredible story of science denied," said Hanna-Attisha. And while crisis in Flint was an outlier in many ways, she said that it fits into a long history of underestimating the damaging effects of lead exposure in children.

"It’s because we don’t see it," she said. "Lead exposure is known as a silent pediatric epidemic."

Even before that switch was made, children in Flint had elevated blood lead levels, according to a study conducted by Filippelli and his colleagues.

That research reinforced previous studies that they and others had conducted across the country. The studies spanned several cities, including Indianapolis, New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, New York.

All pointed to similar conclusions: Lead contaminated soil could become airborne, and that exposure was enough to increase blood lead levels in children.

A lost place to play

For the people who live in the neighborhood around Sandorf Park, its closure raises more than potential health concerns.

The park was an important and rare recreational space in the residential east Indianapolis neighborhood. And now its future is unclear.

"In our neighborhood, that’s it. That’s the only park," said Susan Gaw, chair of the Fountain Square Alliance. "A lot of kids rely on that park. They’ve been tormented since it’s closed down."

City officials hope that, after they cap the contamination, the park can reopen.

But whether the park will reopen according to those grand plans unveiled last year – which included several donations ahead of the national park conference – remains to be seen, said Ronnetta Spalding, chief communications officer for Indy Parks. The city is in talks to determine if that's possible.

“Everyone is 100 percent committed to seeing it through,” Spalding said, “but we want to see where we end up."

Emily Hopkins covers the environment for IndyStar. Contact them at 317-444-6409 or emily.hopkins@indystar.com. Follow them on Twitter: @_thetextfiles.

IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.